Advocacy

EG Justice advocates for human rights, rule of law, transparency, and democratic reform in Equatorial Guinea at the United Nations, the African Union, multilateral organizations, and governments in Europe and the United States to help bring about meaningful reform in Equatorial Guinea.

Recent Successes:

U.S. Transparency Law: EG Justice works closely with the Publish What You Pay coalition in the United States, taking part in Congressional hearings and briefings and speaking with key stakeholders to generate support for revenue transparency and accountability in the extractive industries. Our collaborative work in this area contributed to the passing of U.S. legislation in July 2010 that will greatly increase the amount of information available to the citizens of Equatorial Guinea regarding the amounts of money their government earns from the extraction of oil and other natural resources.

The UNESCO-Obiang Prize: In October, 2010, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) indefinitely suspended the proposed UNESCO-Obiang Nguema Mbasogo International Prize for Research in Life Sciences. The prize, funded by and named after Equatoguinean president Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, represented his effort to improve his international image while continuing to do too little to improve education for Equatoguineans.

Universal Periodic Review: Between December 2009 and March 2010 Equatorial Guinea completed its first Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a mechanism of the United Nations Human Rights Council that reviews the human rights records of all 192 United Nations member countries once every four years in an effort to improve their human rights situations. EG Justice is proud to have coordinated the unprecedented participation of nine NGOs including two Equatoguinean-based non-profit organizations, an opposition political party, and a private lawyer in Equatorial Guinea’s first UPR process. EG Justice organized a number of meetings between the Equatoguinean advocates and UN delegates ahead of the Plenary Session. Additionally, EG Justice coordinated the civil society interventions during the UPR Plenary Session. The first-hand accounts from Equatoguinean advocates provided a vital civil society’s perspective on the human rights situation in Equatorial Guinea, and impacted the nature of the conversation at the UPR.

Ongoing Campaigns:

U.S. Transparency Rules: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is in the process of designing the rules that will enforce Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act. The American Petroleum Institute, as well as a number of oil, gas, and mining companies, is lobbying the SEC in an effort to dilute the rules.

To combat efforts to weaken the legislation, EG Justice submitted a strong statement urging the SEC to design a robust set of rules that will put an end to financial secrecy in the oil, gas, and mining industries and to provide Equatoguinean citizens with information they can use to hold their government accountable for the use of the country's significant oil revenues.

Civil Society Summit: EG Justice is working with African NGOs to urge the African Union to host a civil society summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea in June 2011 to coincide with the Leaders' African Union Summit. This unprecedented event would bring together civil society activists from across the continent and mark an important step forward in the ability of civil society actors in Equatorial Guinea to interact with and learn from their counterparts from other African countries.

“No” a la Corrupción: The participation of a country’s citizens in confronting corruption is a prerequisite for achieving positive and sustainable results against this type of institutional cancer. EG Justice has initiated the Citizens against Corruption campaign to encourage Equatoguineans to observe and report instances of government corruption if/when they occur. The campaign focuses on promoting greater transparency in public agencies and government institutions.